Wow. I kind of don’t remember anything like this ever happening. Ever. Certainly not since I started chickening each Friday a hundred and seventy five weeks ago.

But I had a FANTASTIC week. To the point that all the good is just kind of blowing my mind right now. Usually I have to process the hard before getting to the point where I can remember good, but this week was all about the good.

Weird. Awesome-weird! I would not mind feeling this way more often!

We found our Flairground!

The Flairground!

MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS.

It’s where we’re doing Shivanauticon!

MORE EXCLAMATION POINTS.

And there might be a cotton candy machine!

I am completely baffled by the Friday!

Being sequestered at the Playground all week for Rally (Rally!) has been really intense. And time is all warped and makes funny sound effects now.

Mmmhmmmmmmmmm.

But we’re here.

And identity stuff, related to the anger and grief.

Because then Crusader Me, Impassioned Defender of the Weak and Vulnerable Everywhere makes her way to the front of the V, even though this also doesn’t help.

So then I also had to do a lot of negotiating with her, so that she could realize that we practice doing things differently now.

We are changing both the external and internal worlds (and our experience of them) through love and play instead of through anger and blame.

This is hard to remember.

The Shiva Nata workshop!.

We had two hours together yesterday, and they flew by.

So I will say this:

What lovely, fun, creative people! What joy to flail and sing and hum and twinkle together.

It was a beautiful studio and a beautiful time.

Plus there were sound effects, secret missions, a butt-monster and surprising hidden things about flags.

Thank you, Liz, for the stage and the ride. Thank you, Adrian for giving up your Thursday-off! Thank you, Lucy, for letting us use your studio and taking care of us. Thank you, past Rallions who added to the Playground-ey feel. Thank you, everyone who came. I love you all!

Also, thank you to Leni for saying this:

“You’re here! It’s like a Grateful Dead show and Christmas morning at the same time!”

So. I just finished teaching Crossing the Line (the password for this: haulaway), and it was a long and amazing eight day voyage that was secretly years and years in far-away lands. So that is the hard and good of this week.

And for our purposes it was the OLYMPICS. And they have just ended, and I am an exhausted, happy, proud, deliriously overjoyed athlete who is recovering because dude, the Olympics.

Finally.

After TWO consecutive Chickens that were both #168. Yes.

Okay! Here we are.

I was in the archives this week (for the love of god do not click on that — they are endless!) looking for something or other that I already can’t remember.

And I discovered — much to my shock and horror — that somehow we skipped Friday Chicken #163.

We didn’t miss a Friday, of course. That’s never happened.

But a number is gone. It’s screwing up the count. Hence the point five. Might not be the best solution but it’s the first thing I came up with.

Anyway, shall we? Let’s chicken.

Sneaky, sneaky Friday! There you are.

This was a really weird and crazy week for me.

I haven’t decided yet which parts were good and which parts were hard, but that’s why we’re chickening. Let’s do this.

In which I cover the good stuff and the hard stuff in my week, trying for the non-preachy, non-annoying side of ritual and self-reflection. And you get to join in if you feel like it. How is it possibly Friday? I thought we decided things were going to slow down a little. Right? No? Just [...]